We’ve got LG window units at the “creekhouse.” Granted, we’re only cooling 1,000 square feet, but they do an amazing job. I’ve got a small one in each bedroom, and the largest 3-prong they sell in the dining room (between LR and kitchen.)
They *are* loud. We have to turn the monster one off while eating in the dining room, but aside from that, I am a fan of “white noise” especially at night.
The big one is “on” all the time. Several months in, no problems.
In reply to frenchyd :
those LG units are all over the bahamas and seem to do very well
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
36 wide 11&1/2 tall 9 inch projection.
This is the bracket the unit hangs on
The hole for mini split lines is 2 1/2" usually, you can do 2" but it's a pain in the ass getting everything out. Majority of the time you run the drain line outside with the lines and power. Power hooks up to a disconnect out by the outdoor unit.
Slap some line hide over the stuff and done.
You'll want the outdoor unit up off the ground since it's a heat pump. Technically regular heat pumps should be off the ground too but that rarely happens. Check out Daikin too, they bought goodman to get a foothold in America and people have been very pleased with their units that we've installed.
In reply to Grizz :
Thanks! Yeah, if we do it the outdoor unit(s) will definitely be off the ground- if the units were on the ground they'd need REALLY long lines to get to them!
We're hoping to meet with the HVAC guy sometime this week to get things figured out. Our biggest concern at the moment is how the units will do in the occasional super-cold (for here...) snaps we get in the winter when it dips below zero for a night or two. We stayed in a cabin (well, yurt) a few years back over New Year's when it was down below freezing overnight and the last night the heating system wasn't keeping up and the temp inside was in the 50s- the only reason we didn't go home early that last night was that we piled the blankets on and left the gas fireplace on high overnight. I'm going to talk with the guy who runs the cabin company and find out how the cabins they already have with mini splits have done in really cold weather.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) : I don’t use mine for heat. However with your wife’s phobia about gas all you can do is try them and see. They do make some electric heaters the do a decent job of mimicking a fireplace but those are simple-carry- them- in and plug them into the wall outlet.
Just remember that electric heat is going to be more expensive to operate than gas.
In reply to frenchyd :
We already have an electric fireplace for the cabin... one of these days I'll get around to making the enclosure for it, but there's no real hurry since it can be installed whenever since it will be in its own little enclosure.
Yeah, the electric heat will be more expensive- but the gas would also have been a higher up-front cost getting the propane tank and burying it plus the fun of constantly having to get it re-filled as there is nothing resembling natural gas service to where the cabin is.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:In reply to frenchyd :
We already have an electric fireplace for the cabin... one of these days I'll get around to making the enclosure for it, but there's no real hurry since it can be installed whenever since it will be in its own little enclosure.
Yeah, the electric heat will be more expensive- but the gas would also have been a higher up-front cost getting the propane tank and burying it plus the fun of constantly having to get it re-filled as there is nothing resembling natural gas service to where the cabin is.
If you have the credit, you can do as several of my friends have done. Put in solar/ wind generators and when they aren’t there using the place it’s generating an income stream to make the payments.
Both wind and solar have about a 20 year life cycle. So they select something big enough to have a 10 year payout.
Wind is a bit strange in that too small and it will never pay for itself. It needs to be high enough so it’s well over the tree line. Which makes putting up the tower the big expense.
The big million dollar plus ones have as little as. 1-2 year payback but the smaller ( and cheaper ) you go the longer the payback until you reach the point where cost and maintenance can never be cheaper than just buying it from the local grid.
Solar is cheaper if you have the land to put it on rather than up on your roof. But then weeds and growth need to be kept away from it.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
What about getting a pellet stove or something to supplement?
In reply to frenchyd :
I'd honestly have loved to put some PV panels on the roof of the cabin and a battery bank to make it somewhat capable of staying usable if anything happened with the power (currently the only thing not on-site since it has a well), but the area is so wooded that they'd never really generate much power. We could probably cover the front porch roof with cell and generate a modest bit, but it only gets sunlight from noon on at best.
The property is on a massive incline, heavily wooded, and backs up to a 50-100 foot (I'm horrible at judging heights) rock wall- so wind is solidly out both for having space and the fact that there is very little breeze in the area due to it being largely enclosed by the rock walls.
In reply to Grizz :
-I- wouldn't mind that, but as frenchyd noted (as I've talked about it before) my wife has a SERIOUS phobia about fire/things burning down and she'd almost certainly nix the idea of having something burning in the place when we're not there to keep an eye on it. I know she'd be afraid that somehow people staying there would manage to mess something up and end up burning the whole place down. We'd be more likely to just have newer-model space heaters to supplement the heating if necessary.
Personally I wouldn't mind at all- and would think would work well- having a wood-burning stove of some sort, especially something easier to fill/operate like a pellet-fueled one. A house I lived in growing up had an addition that wasn't tied into the central heat and was heated solely by a wood-burning stove. It was always nice and warm and cozy there- sometimes too much so, admittedly...
EDIT: Also, thanks for the recommendation on the Daikin units- they are definitely more cost-effective than the LG ones.
Just talked with the main contractor and apparently the HVAC guy he's been talking with either went out or will be going out shortly. I couldn't remember which of the contractors had been in favor of the mini splits and therefore whether our current one liked them or not, but apparently he also thinks they may be a good idea simply for the fact of not having to worry about the ducting runs for a traditional central system.
We're likely heading out either tonight or tomorrow night to check over the progress and to take a look at potential locations for the units. Given they'd likely be located a ways apart I'm thinking we'd probably get two separate systems (likely a 9k for the bedroom and something like an 18k for the main cabin area) so we could put the inside units where they'd do the most good without having ridiculously long line runs.
So, just heard back from the contractor with the quote from the HVAC guy... for a 3 ton 2-zone system (I’m assuming that’s about 36,000 BTU) he quoted $9200 for it. On my concern about the heat in the winter he said that the units we would get they would have backup ‘emergency’ pure electric heating that would ensure it heated properly.
That just sounds WAY high... am I just being unreasonable?
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
Yes. That is I don’t want the job unless I can make silly money. Bid.
In reply to frenchyd :
We got conflicting opinions when we asked my FIL (a builder in WI) and the guy who owns the cabin company we'll be renting the cabin through (and who has built a number of cabins). FIL though it sounded on the high side (and BIL, who is a less-experienced builder than FIL, quoted about the same amount- but for a central system with furnace, AC, and ducting...) but the local guy said that was about what he paid when his were build- but that the company who did them was great on warrantying and servicing them.
Main contractor is going to try and meet with his main HVAC guy (this one he had been referred to) out there tomorrow to look it over and get a quote- but since the main HVAC guy is apparently part of a TV show about moonshiners and they started shooting early he may not be able to do it. If he can't, we're going to talk with one of our neighbors who works in construction and see if he has any recommendations.
We've also toyed with just saying, "Berk it" and getting and installing the unit ourselves (with some help from the contractor) to save the install costs. Of course, that will likely mean having to deal with servicing it ourselves.
So I did a bit more searching with some more specific parameters (i.e., trying to figure out what the unit the guy was likely quoting installing) to see just what exactly it might cost... and I'm unfortunately beginning to think that the price (our main contractor eventually said that the HVAC guy had said it would be 'between $8500 and $9200', he'd just given us the higher price so we wouldn't be expecting it to be lower...) may not be totally out of line depending on the unit he was planning on installing.
2-Zone 24,000 BTU Daikin system with enhanced heating - $3,500 (note: does not include line or wire sets to hook up units, which would add another $1k or more)
Interestingly, at least from what I can find, Daikin doesn't make a 36,000 BTU system with the enhanced heating option...
2-Zone 24,000 BTU LG system with enhanced heating - $3,400 (note: does not include line or wire sets to hook up units, which would add another $1k or more)
2-Zone 36,000 BTU LG system with enhanced heating - $4,300 (note: does not include line or wire sets to hook up units, which would add another $1k or more)
3-Zone 36,000 BTU LG system with enhanced heating - $4,700 (note: does not include line or wire sets to hook up units, which would add another $1k or more)
So... for the one I think that the HVAC guy would be doing- the 2-zone 36k LG unit, with the linesets and other install hardware it could easily get up near $6k for just the units... so $2500-$3200 to install it all might not be totally out of line... *sigh*
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) : my prices are about 6 years old But I bought the 3 zone LG 36,000 btu’s for my 5500 sq ft house.
No enhanced heating but insulated coolant lines and remote controls. It was about $2400 shipped to my home. ( my wife thinks it was more but has to look it up )
Altogether it took me a total of 8&1/2 hours to install. But I took my time because I had never done that before. There is no complexity to it. Hang the bracket the units inside hang on. Run the two copper refrigerant lines. ( they are insulated so they are a little bulky ) Run the drain hose. And connect the power. Then put the head unit in place. Repeat for second zone. Hang the compressor bracket outside your house and run the power to it. Put the compressor unit in place and connect the lines.
Budget another $300-400 to evacuate and charge the unit. I got mine done as a freebie from a friend for some work I did on his Jag
Service work is usually readily available on A/C units, all you have to do is remember their goal is to sell you a new one of their brand. But they happily work on most brands, just might not have parts in the truck. So once you find a company that stocks parts for yours that’s who you call. You can ask if they carry parts for your brand before you schedule them to come out and charge your unit.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
The prices you quoted are eerily similar to what we just paid for replacing a couple of 3 ton a/c units with heat pumps. So they sound realistic to me, but our price were the installed price. That said, at our house it was strictly a replacement of existing units so I expect your cost to be higher if the installed cost covers everything else (wiring, ducting as necessary and all that jazz).
Sheesh. So, the HVAC guy that gave the $8500-$9200 quote was apparently ONLY able to do the install this last weekend and is now working on a large job in Cinci for the next month or so. The main contractor's friend who does HVAC and is on the moonshining show is busy filming and unavailable. The contractor said he had another AC guy friend who went out yesterday to look things over to give a quote, but we've not heard anything back from him yet (HOPEFULLY this is because the contractor is out working at the cabin where there's really crappy cell reception...).
The Dancer finally got through to one of the places nearby that was recommended to us... but they're also the place that we were told would likely be up in the more expensive range (though also had really good customer service and people on call to fix problems).
So, in the last week we've gotten two more bids.
The first was from the place that the owner of the cabin company uses and came with the warning they're likely be on the higher side- and they were, with both a mini-split and traditional system coming in at over $11k.
The bid from one of the places the Dancer contacted that met us there Saturday came in at the lowest yet- $7k. BUT... it's also only 2 interior units AND is for two totally separate systems so they don't have to run lines all the way around the building and can keep the costs down. It would mean putting an exterior unit on a side of the cabin we'd wanted to avoid it- but they've said that it would be quiet enough to not be an issue.
There's a final place going out right about now to give us an estimate as well... hopefully we'll have their estimate later today and can make a decision on what to do...
So, now have the estimates from both places in competition in now... but are just missing the detailed unit specs (from the cheaper place).
Company #1: Total price installed, $7000. Plan to install two, totally separate, units- one smaller 110V one up in the loft to heat/cool it and a much larger 220 (or 208, whatever) one down in the lower main space on the opposite side of the cabin.
Advantages: Price, and redundancy- if anything happens to one of the units the other will still be able to provide SOME heat/cold to the cabin.
Disadvantages: Means having an outside unit on the side of the house with the screened-in porch, does not include an indoor unit in the bedroom itself (they think that's unnecessary with the big one for all of downstairs, but would mean we couldn't turn the rest of the indoor units down/up while we're asleep and only have the one in the bedroom running at the temp we really want).
Company #2: Total price installed, $8000. Plan to install one 36,000 BTU Bryant(/Carrier) external unit with three (18k, 12k, and 9k) indoor units. Don't have details on exactly where they'd go, but the biggest would be for the main area and the smallest for the bedroom.
Advantages: Only one external unit, likely where we want it on the side of the cabin with no deck. Includes a unit for the bedroom so we can have only it heating/cooling and the others not running or not working as hard.
Disadvantages: $1k pricier, only having one external unit means if something goes wrong with it or something catastrophic with an interior one we'd have no cooling and only the electric fireplace for heat.
We're waiting on the unit specs from the cheaper place before we decide... right now it's a bit of a toss-up...
Cheaper place never got back with us with the specs for the units they wanted to use- after being asked 3 times over 2 days- so we decided that didn't bode well for their responsiveness to problems and decided to go with the slightly more expensive place. Hardware should be in Monday at the latest, just need to arrange when they can meet us out there to finalize where to put everything and then schedule them coming out to do the install.
what a bunch of pansies.
You don't AC a cabin. You open the windows at night and let nature do the job.
This is how we cooled our camp for 40 years.
iceracer said:what a bunch of pansies.
You don't AC a cabin. You open the windows at night and let nature do the job.
This is how we cooled our camp for 40 years.
I know right? Kentucky isn't THAT much further south than Upstate New York. 
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